Reservation systems, such as those for reserving hotel rooms and airplane seats, were among the earliest targets of automation. These systems have matured to the point where, today, the consumer can make his own reservation over the Internet. One of the factors that contributed to the early automation of such systems is the substantial fungibility of the seats or rooms. That is to say, although one airline seat or hotel room may have some particular attributes or desirability factors that affect desirability of the unit (i.e., aisle or window, king or double bed), the units are generally all equally well suited to accommodate the person or persons reserving them. The desirability factors, though not without importance, become less important when a plane or hotel is nearly booked, and a person needs a seat on the plane or a room in the hotel. People are often willing to overlook desirability factors in such situations, because the reserveable units can indeed properly perform the intended function for any person.
Similar reservation systems for fungible units exist also for reserving rental cars, stadium seats, cruise ship cabins, doctor visits, and a myriad of other products and services.
No suitable reservation system has heretofore been developed, however, for the camping industry. Previous attempts to use or adapt hotel-type reservation systems in the camping industry have been made, and have failed. There are reasons why such attempts have been unsuccessful, as will now be explained.
Although the particulars of the camping industry will be familiar to many, a brief overview of the industry will now be provided for the sake of background and to set out some terms to be used in the remainder of the discussion.
As a recreational activity, many persons enjoy leaving their home and spending the night in a fixed location other than in a building. Although such locations might include a tent or the bare ground, today such locations are often vehicles specially designed for overnight accommodation. Such vehicles include at least beds, but may also be equipped with a toilet, shower, bath, kitchen, dining area, living area, computer, television, etc. Having many of the conveniences of home, it is not surprising that such vehicles have sometimes been referred to as mobile homes. For the sake of generality and simplicity, however, it will be understood that any vehicle having at least a sleeping area will be referred to hereafter as a camping vehicle. It will also be understood that the meaning of the term is meant to be inclusive of vehicles that are towed as well as those with the capability of moving without being towed.
The persons who stay in camping vehicles will be referred to as campers. The term generally excludes people staying in a hotel. For the sake of this discussion, people having non-camping vehicles but who stay in tents, and also people who travel without any vehicle at all are of no particular interest and are usually not included when the term “campers” is used herein.
Campers can drive their camping vehicles on almost any road, and park them in many convenient locations. Some businesses have developed to serve campers and provide them with excellent facilities to park their camping vehicles for overnight stays. Such businesses are typically referred to as campgrounds, but usually will be referred to herein as camping facilities for the sake of generality. A business operating more than one camping facility may be referred to as a camping institution.
A camping facility has several predetermined locations in which campers may park their camping vehicles. Each of these locations may be referred to as a campsite or a camping pad. Camping pads are not all alike, and each possesses attributes which severely complicate the process of making a reservation for a camper's camping vehicle. Furthermore, camping vehicles are not all alike, and have different requirements that must be fulfilled by a suitable camping pad.
FIG. 5 shows an exemplary camping facility. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 600 refers generally to the camping facility. Non-paved areas are indicated with a grassy texture, such as that at 610. Paved areas are not textured, as shown at 620. A camping pad is indicated at the paved area 630, and this type of camping pad allows a user to pull his camping vehicle through the pad so that, upon departing, there is no need to back out the vehicle. At 640 there is a camping pad that allows for pull through as in pad 630, but the pad is significantly wider than pad 630. Camping pad 650 is wide, but does not allow for pull through. A pool 660 is provided as a camping facility amenity, as is picnic area 670. Primitive tent area 680 is provided for persons who do not have camping vehicles.
Camping pad attributes and camping vehicle attributes will be discussed in further detail below, but a few will be mentioned now to help give a basic appreciation of the reasons that typical hotel reservation systems are unsuitable in the camping industry.
One camping pad attribute is the location of the power pedestal. The power pedestal of a camping pad is a permanent camping pad fixture that includes at least a connector for providing electrical power. Another camping pad attribute is the height of the power pedestal. The power pedestal may be anywhere from a few inches to several feet in height. The height and location of the power pedestal may be thought of as power pedestal particulars, for the sake of linguistic convenience.
One camping vehicle attribute is the presence or absence of a tip-out portion. A tip-out portion of a camping vehicle is a part of the vehicle which does not substantially protrude from the camping vehicle during movement, but which can be extended from the camping vehicle in a stationary state to provide additional interior space. Some camping vehicles have multiple tip-out portions, and these can extend from the camping vehicle for several feet. Another related camping vehicle attribute is the ground clearance of any tip-out portion. That is to say, some tip-out portions of some camping vehicles may, when fully extended and deployed, have only about a foot of space between the bottom of the tip-out portion and the level of the ground. These attributes of the camping vehicle may, for linguistic convenience in this illustration, be thought of as tip-out portion particulars.
To make a proper pairing of a given camping vehicle with a given camping pad, it should be determined ahead of time whether the tip-out portion, when deployed, will inevitably collide with the power pedestal, may possibly collide with the power pedestal, or is free from the possibility of a collision between the two. Current reservation support systems are incapable of such determinations and frequently make improper pairings.
Heretofore, when campers have made reservations at camping facilities, no automated systems have ever existed to ensure proper consideration of camping pad attributes in combination with camping vehicle attributes. For example, reservation determinations have not been heretofore made with the support of a system that automatically takes into account such factors as the above-identified power pedestal particulars for a given camping pad and also the above-identified tip-out portion particulars for a given camping vehicle, to arrive at an appropriate camping pad/camping vehicle pairing. Wrong reservation determinations are often made.
It will be appreciated that the few, brief technical points noted above with respect to camping pad and camping vehicle attributes are merely illustrative of just some considerations that make reservation determinations for camping facilities extremely complicated. Other attributes require consideration as well, and these will be discussed in more detail below. These points do show, however, that camping pads are not fungible units, and that camping vehicles cannot all be equally well accommodated by any given camping pad.
The reasons just outlined are among those that make the use of hotel-like reservation systems completely unsuitable for the camping industry. In hotel-like reservation systems, rooms are assumed to be fungible; guests to be housed in the rooms are always assumed to fit in the rooms; the fixtures in the rooms are always assumed to be of appropriate size and quality to suit the guest. Such reservation systems can make such simple assumptions, and still be used with effect in the hotel industry, because the “thing” for which space is provided is a human body and because the human body has generally predictable and constant attributes. Camping vehicles vary widely, and so reservation systems for hotels are far too simple to be used in the camping industry.
Because of these complicated camping pad and camping vehicle attributes, the process of reserving a camping pad in a camping facility is often labor intensive, slow, and inaccurate. Reliance is almost completely on the knowledge of the service agent at the campsite to explain and describe the camping pad attributes to the camper, who is assumed to be knowledgeable about his camping vehicle.
In establishing a reservation for a user, the camping facility agent would acquire a user's personal information, reservation information, vehicle information and payment information. Depending on the user and the user's specifications, this can require a lengthy amount of information which the camping facility agent will have to inquire of the user and subsequently input into the camping facility system or manually record. This would also require a camping facility agent to relay to the user what camping facilities are available to the user based upon the user's specifications and preferences. Furthermore, since this information is not within the view of the user, the user would have to write and record the information as well. If the user is not familiar with the camping facility or with camping in general, the camping facility agent would be required to explain to the user what facilities and accommodations are available to the user. The foregoing require a great amount of camping facility agent's time.
When the camping facility agent has acquired all the information necessary to make a camping reservation, the camping facility agent would consequently send the user their camping facility information either via mail or facsimile or would verbally inform the user of their camping information which the user would consequently have to record.
Many users who would like to make a camping reservation are not new to camping or are familiar with making camping reservations. Some users may regularly visit a particular camping facility or various camping facilities of a particular camping institution that they are designated as a frequent user. According to the camping reservation systems currently available, a user who is more knowledgeable of camping will perform the same steps necessary for making a camping reservation as that of a new or infrequent user of camping facilities. Furthermore, current camping reservation systems do not request sufficient information from a user in order to obtain an appropriate camping location.
However, since there are limited camping facility agents, a frequent user will be required to wait until a camping facility agent is free to take their reservation. Camping facility agents may only be available during certain hours or may be assisting other users, further increasing the inconvenience of making a camping reservation.
Presently, there are various network based reservation systems available for making hotel reservations, plane reservations or vehicle reservations, however, there are no suitable network based reservation systems that can make camping pad reservation determinations based on camping pad attributes and also on camping vehicle attributes.
There is a serious need for such a system, however, to improve the quality of reservation determinations, and also to fulfill user desires to make a camping reservation prior to arriving at a camping facility and without substantial interaction with a camping facility agent.